Updated for 2018 - Simple Video Presentations with Google Slides and Screencastify

This is an updated post about a process I've been promoting for years. It uses Google Slides and Screencastify. Since they recently updated the app, I remade the main tutorial, which you can find below.

The idea of these projects is that students make a slideshow presentation, then they record the screen and their voice as they present it.

Teachers can also use this process to make simple, quick videos for lessons to post in Classroom.

Here are two examples of how the final video might look.The first is best to show students, but keep in mind it actually was made with SnagIt instead of Screencastify. SnagIt is no longer available. The second one was designed for teachers and refers specifically to their activity.

  

Screencastify is a great Chrome extension for this process. It makes it very easy to record the presentation on a Chromebook or laptop. It also links directly to Google Drive, so students don't have extra steps of uploading video files to Drive.

You will need to install Screencastify from the Chrome Web Store or, if your school uses a managed Google domain, you can have your administrator force install the app for you and your students.

As referred to in the video below, the first time you run it, it will take you through a simple setup process. Just allow all the permissions it asks for and sign into your Google account when it prompts you.

The tutorial below shows how to actually record the presentation. As it says in the video, there are three things students should do before recording:

• Install and setup the extension. This is not shown in the tutorial, but it's very easy.
• Make the slideshow. I suggest doing this in Google Slides, but you can use any slideshow app.
• Practice! It's very important to rehearse the presentation because these have to be done in one take.

As you can see from the tutorial, the resulting video ends up in Google Drive. From there it's easy to share or turn it in through Google Classroom.

Keep in mind that the free version of Screencastify puts a watermark on the screen. It also limits you to a 10 minute recording and 50 recordings per month. There is a paid version which removes those limitations and watermark. It also allows for some basic editing. I haven't paid to upgrade yet, but that option to edit is very promising. 

If you have any questions about this process, please let me know. I'd like to improve these resources so they benefit many students!

Simple Video Presentations with Google Slides and Screencastify

Update:  I made a new version of this post, including a new tutorial to match the latest version of Screencastify. Click here to read it.

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This is an updated process I first highlighted on this post from 2015. I used to use SnagIt to record the video, they stopped supporting it a few months ago. I've started using Screencastify. Below I have two updated tutorials that show how to record presentations using it.

The idea of these projects is that students make a slideshow presentation, then they record the screen and their voice as they present it.

Here are two examples of how the final video might look.The first is best to show students, but keep in mind it actually was made with SnagIt instead of Screencastify. SnagIt is no longer available. The second one was designed for teachers and refers specifically to their activity.

  

Screencastify is a great Chrome extension for this process. It makes it very easy to record the presentation on a Chromebook or laptop. It also links directly to Google Drive, so students don't have extra steps of uploading video files to Drive.

This tutorial shows the setup process, which has to be done the first time you use the extension. It's very intuitive to click through, but you might want to watch this before you try it with a class, just so you'll know what to expect.

Then this tutorial shows how to actually record the presentation (which is limited to 10 minutes if you're using the free version of Screencastify). As it says in the video, there are three things students should do before recording:

• Do the process shown in the video above to set up the extension.
• Make the slideshow. I suggest doing this in Google Slides, but you can use any slideshow app.
• Practice! It's very important to rehearse the presentation because these have to be done in one take.

As you can see from the tutorial, the resulting video ends up in Google Drive. From there it's easy to share or turn it in through Google Classroom.

There is a paid upgrade of Screencastify which removes the time limit and watermark. It also allows for some basic editing. I haven't paid to upgrade yet, but the option to edit is very promising. 

If you have any questions about this process, please let me know. I'd like to improve these resources so they benefit many students!

Two Great Tools for Creative Presentation Options - Think beyond PowerPoint

Update 11-25-2016:  I still love Adobe Spark, but I've learned a couple things since I used it more in the classroom this year. First, users have to enter a date of birth to sign up. Students under 13 will not get access. Also, we have run into problems with the video feature on Chromebooks. That option seems to work best on regular computers.

Teachers often ask me for presentation options that get them beyond PowerPoint. Adobe Spark fills this need perfectly!

I just finished new videos for easy, creative presentations and projects using Adobe Spark. I showed these (and Posts, the third option) to teachers a couple weeks ago and they took to it immediately. It came out in mid-May, too late for me to push it big in my district, but I suspect it will be a very popular tool this new school year.

Keep in mind both of these tools should be useful for teachers and students. They work great on Chromebooks or any computer. iPad apps are available too.

I strongly recommend that every teacher learn these tools before school starts up. Believe me, they won't take long to get the basics.

This first video is an overview and some tips for creating what they call Pages. These are very attractive webpages that can be used to tell a story, report on a classroom activity or just about anything else you'd make that uses pictures and text.

The video is below, but here's the sample page I created and that you'll see in the first part of the video.

This next tutorial features the Adobe Spark Videos. The tool is by far the simplest one I've found for making an attractive digital slideshow. Even adding narration is a breeze.

You might be interested in these related posts:

• Adobe Spark Posts - The third tool in the Adobe Spark suite is called a Post. It's a picture with text. 
• Using Adobe Spark for Making Narrated Slideshows - This video shows how to go from Google Slides to a narrated digital slideshow using Adobe Spark Video.

Using Adobe Spark to Add Text to Images

A quick "tech project" that can sum up the learning or share good ideas is what some people call "infopics". Students simply add some text to a picture.

I've written about several tools that will let you do this easily. Now Adobe has released Spark, a creative tool that makes this (as well as some other digital creations) simple with very attractive results.

I created this video tutorial that shows the process.

There are Adobe Spark apps for iOS and Andorid as well. Each app creates one of the three project types the web app can create. This particular project is called the Post.

If you're interested in more resources about this image with text project, see my Project Pack about it here. The post with all my Project Packs can be found at this link.

Quick Start Tech Projects for Any Class

After two years of helping a lot of teachers get started with different tech projects, I finally got smart and combined the many existing tech project resources I've created.

My goal was to save time for teachers. Having everything in one document (or at least linked from one document) can cut out a lot of emails or our initial planning meetings, since now they can find these documents on one single webpage.

Instead of taking me out of the picture, it allows them to ask me the questions that are most relevant to their class a lot more quickly. 

Each of these "Tech Project Packs" focuses on one type of final product, like a blog or an audio recording. It answers important questions such as:

• What is this type of project best for?
• What tools are needed?
• What are some common challenges?
• What tutorials do you have for it?
• What should I include in the directions?
• How can we share it beyond the classroom?

We are a Google Apps for Education district and most students are using Chromebooks.

Here are four packs to start with. More will be added in the upcoming week. 

• Images with Text - A very quick project that can be adapted to any subject
• Infographics - Create informational "digital posters" with Piktochart
• Blogs - Good for getting started using Blogger
• Audio Recordings - A simple process for creating audio recordings on a Chromebook or laptop

If you have any suggestions or requests or if you see problems with the documents or links, please let me know.

Using Technology to Amplify What's Working

This post is about a resource I created for for teacher professional development sessions about tech integration. It serves at least three purposes:

• It reinforces the idea that technology should be used for more than just saving time. 
• It introduces teachers to good research-based instructional strategies.
• It provides a common language and vision for effective use of technology.

It's based on the idea that technology amplifies. Like a lever can allow one person to lift more or a shovel can help one person dig more, technology in the classroom can increase the effectiveness of good instructional strategies.

A link to the document is below. As teachers work in pairs or a group of three to fill in the table, it requires them to go through this process:

• Identify and describe a few good instructional strategies - I have been providing these, but teahers could start by sharing some they use or possibly researching them on their own. I like to direct them to John Hattie's work and this page is a good starting point.
• Identify tech tools they have available that can amplify the practice - It helps to give an example here. I use lecture, since everyone is familiar with it, but it's not likely to be on the top of the list of effective practices. As an example of enhancing it with technology, we talk about how video can be used in powerful ways in flipped and blending learning models. It's important that specific tools are mentioned. For example, if the teachers use Chromebooks I'd suggest SnagIt as a great tool for recording the screen.
• Identify (and possibly describe) the ways the technology gives an advantage - This is the heart of the activity. I call these ways "AMPs", which stands for Achieve Maximum Potential. Some example AMPs from my list that we could mention for amplifying the lecture would be:
• Improves the access for learning - Students can watch it even if they're not in class.
•  Personalizes the learning experience for the needs of the learner - They can play parts again or skip ahead as necessary.

I included 10 AMPs in the document, each labeled with a letter to make it easier to complete the table. A description of each, including examples, is on the second page.

Click here to open a copy of the document in your Google Drive.

Simple Video Presentations with Google Slides and SnagIt

Update 12/2016: Since TechSmith stopped supporting SnagIt, I now use Screencatify to do the same thing. A more recent post about this is here.

One of my most popular posts has been this process of making a digital slideshow using Google Slides and WeVideo. It's my preferred method, since it works on any computer or Chromebook and it's a good introduction to video editing. The only downside is the tech can take more than its share of the time from the lesson.

Here's another method that can be done much more quickly. It is an informal recording, with no opportunity to edit. So what it saves it time, it may lack in polish. It's a great next step from traditional slideshow presentations, though.

First, this is an example I made to show what the finished product might look like. Notice that the recording will capture the act of starting and stopping the presentation.


And this next video is a tutorial of the process. It really just involves just three steps:

• Create the slideshow with Google Slides (or any other tool you prefer on a laptop or Chromebook).
• Practice what you'll say and when you'll advance each slide.
• Record it with the SnagIt Chrome extension.

I worked out this process with another teacher at my school about a year ago for math tutorials. Then last summer I found this great overview of the process from Jonathan Brubaker on the FreeTech4Teachers blog. See his guest post for other details and options. He also includes some good examples from students.

Two simple, free tools for adding text to pictures

I recently came across these two very simple tools that will add text to a picture in no time.

If you're on Facebook or Twitter, I'm sure you've seen how people put words (usually humorous ones) on pictures. The best ones are quickly shared with the masses. Many educators create these images (sometimes called "cards") to share great quotes or thoughts for professional development.

I used to call them "digital posters" and I put several of mine on this post on my blog. Tony Vincent calls them "infopics" and he has a lot to say on his blog about how you can use them in the classroom.

I usually to use Pixlr or Picmonkey to create these myself, but these other two sites will let you put a quote or phrase on a picture in minutes.

Because of this, both should be ideal for classroom projects where you don't want the tech taking the focus. They have banner ads displayed on both sites, but as I've used them to test the features I haven't seen anything inappropriate in the ads. Here are some pros, cons and examples.

PICFONT

The interface for PICFONT looks a little dated, but the pictures come out looking great. It provides several effects to choose from besides just adding text. That's great if you want to get into the details of design, but it also could make it more of a distraction in class. 

I couldn't figure out how to center the text without entering each line individually. It wasn't hard once I realized that, so I pass it along. Here's the sample graphic I created at the site:

AddText
Of these two, AddText is the most streamlined. There simply isn't much you can do with the free version other than choose or upload a picture, then type the text. This site has the opposite problem of PICFONT when it comes to arranging the text. The text automatically is centered, so you'll have to add multiple lines of text if you want to align it in any other arrangement.

There aren't many free fonts to choose from, but there are some decorative ones that look a lot better than PICFONT's options. This can be a great option for meme projects, since there are some pictures in the gallery and a font that are available just for that purpose.

The message to get a premium membership will pop up if students choose a font marked with a star. For about $20 a year you can get the premium features (which is actually a premium account at FlamingText.com). It's a fair price by the looks of the many font options, but for quick class projects the free fonts will serve you well.

Here's an example of what I quickly put together with AddText:

Six-Word Memoir Photos on a Chromebook

A popular assignment in our English 11 class is the Six-Word Memoir Photo project. In it, students take a picture of themselves, add six words to it that describe them, then the teacher compiles all the photos into a video slideshow.

This year I made a short tutorial that shows how students can complete the entire process on a Chromebook using Pixlr Express. Pixlr Express is my favorite app for editing photos because it works on so many devices. As I say in the video, the process is very similar if using phones or tablets as long as students download the Pixlr Express and Google Classroom mobile apps.



Here's a link to the document that we attached to the assignment in Classroom. It has the links I refer to in the video.

This project is a perfect example of how simple tools let the good ideas, personality and creativity shine through. You don't have to lose a class period dealing with the how-to of the process and students love expressing themselves in this way.

_________________________

I'm doing a challenge this month to post on one of my blogs every day. It's in preparation for my conference session, The Way of the Google Drive. Be sure to follow me on Twitter or on either blog to keep up with the "thoughts and tools to inspire". 

Click here to see all the posts from my Teaching Like an Artist blog with the tag The Way of the Google Drive.

10 Ways Students Can Show Off Their Learning Beyond the Classroom...and PowerPoint is not one of them

Using The Cube to broadcast Geometry presentations

Two newer posts that provide updates to the items below:

• Tech Project Packs - Save time with these compiled resources for tech projects
• Adobe Spark for Narrated Slideshows and Digital Stories

This year my mantra is going to be Show off the learning!

When teachers and students show off the best things they learned, perceptions change and the culture changes. I want to make sure my district is known as a place where important learning happens every day.

I'm a big fan of that final essential stage of project-based learning: Put the final product in front of a larger audience. 

A lot of teachers in my district like hands-on, physical projects and they've struggled ideas for making them public. (How many art exhibits and science fairs can you do a year?) 

I compiled this list so now they have options for even those paintings done with real paint and the science experiment made of food.

Because I made this for the teachers I work with, please keep in mind:

• It is a tool for awareness, not a how-to guide. Teachers in my district would contact me for more help. I included examples and some links to tutorials or tips below, but all the tools will require further exploration beyond this post.
• Most classrooms in my district use laptops or Chromebooks. I didn't include options for tablets with most of the ideas.

I've listed these options roughly in order of how much tech is involved on the part of the students.

1) Live broadcasts of student presentations - Use The Cube. 

• You can broadcast to the internet easily with an iPhone or iPad. 
• Someone from your school will have to sign up and create an admin account at the site.
• Share the link to your broadcast with parents or to the community beforehand so anyone can watch live. 
• The recording can be left online, so people can watch it later if you want.
• When using live video, be sure you have parent permission to post online and remember not to identify students by first and last name.

2) Websites and Blogs - A simple site or blog (created by you or the students themselves) is the starting point for sharing all the other types of project presentations listed below.

• Any final product, even if it’s has no tech involved, can be posted online by way of pictures and text. 
• For websites, Google Sites is a good, simple option. I made this tutorial for my district for making a website with Google Sites.
• For blogs, use Blogger. Here’s a tutorial I made for creating a new one.

3) A PDF ebook - Within seconds anything students make in Google Docs or Slides can be turned into a PDF. From there it can be posted on any blog or website so anyone can open or download it like an ebook.

• With the file open, go to the File menu and select the option to Download as PDF.
• Once the PDF is downloaded, upload it to Drive again and share it as needed.

4) InfoPics - If he didn’t invent this simple concept, Tony Vincent is the one who named it and he sings its praises. This really is just a process of adding notes or other text to pictures that are related to a topic. 

• Here's Tony’s blog post about it (with examples).
• It would be very easy for students to make these and share the images on a website or blog.The pictures could also be shared by a teacher or a parent on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook or any other social network.
• The device you like to use will dictate the tools, but I’d suggest Google Drawings for computers or Chromebooks. Pixlr.com is a good tool on many devices if you want to add more effects to your pictures.

5) Infographics - Students can create infographic images to show facts in a concise, visually appealing way.

• Finished graphics can be posted on social media or websites and blogs.
• Piktochart is a great tool for this.
• Users can log in on Piktochart with their Google accounts.
• Here’s a good article from Matt Smith with ideas for Piktochart in many subjects.

6) Audio Recordings (podcasts) - Students can create audio recordings and share them online in a variety of ways. These can be completed much faster than a video project. Here are a few details.

• Here’s a simple example of an interview between two students.
• On a PC with a microphone (or a laptop) Audacity is the program to use for recording.
• On a Chromebook you can try SoundCloud for recording (if editing isn’t necessary) or SoundTrap. Both work with Google accounts.
• Finished mp3 or wav files can be uploaded to SoundCloud so people can listen to them and even add comments.

7) Virtual books on Flipsnack - This site is a great tool that turns any PDF into a fun virtual book. 

• Important Note: I found out if students sign in using a Google Apps for Education account it uses the first and last name in the URLs. This is not a good practice. Be sure students go to their account page at Flipsnack to change their username when they first log in. It only takes a minute.
• I usually create the PDF in Google Slides or Google Docs first, then upload to Flipsnack.
• Here’s an example I use for a comic assignment.
• Users can sign into Flipsnack with their Google accounts.
• Free Flipsnack accounts are limited to three virtual books at a time.

8) Screen Recordings - Think of these as somewhat informal recordings of something the students show on the screen. 

• These are great for tutorials or presentations.
• Here’s an example from a teacher who has his students use this method a lot.
• They’re informal because editing is usually not part of the process. Students need to practice before recording!
• On a computer with a mic, use Screencast-o-Matic.
• On a Chromebook you can use the SnagIt app.
• Final results can be uploaded to Google Drive or YouTube for sharing as necessary.

9) Digital slideshows - These are a series of pictures combined into a video by using an editing program.

• These are a step up from screen recordings because you can (and should) edit them.
• Students can add audio. It might be just background music or they can narrate the slideshow.
• With narration, these become presentations that present themselves.
• They make a good introduction to video production, but don’t require as much time.
• I present on a method for making these with any laptop or Chromebook. Here is the resource site include my examples and the process using Google Slides and WeVideo.

10) Videos - Producing a good video is the pinnacle of technology integration in most classes.

• Good videos require several technology skills and a deep understanding of class content. 
• There is a huge range of possibilities for complexity. Don’t just tell students they can “make a video”! Know the options and set guidelines that are appropriate for your students.
• Here are my tips for teachers and students for any video project.

Google Boot Camp and Updated Comic Resources

This week I spent two days at the Genesee ISD for their Google Boot Camp. I presented a session on using Drawings and Slides to create comics.

I also taught a group how to make narrated slideshows using Slides and WeVideo.

There were a lot of great ideas shared. As always, the best and most lasting benefits will be the connections we made with other passionate, innovative educators.

If you want to follow the hashtag on Twitter, it was #gisdcamp15. You'll find several good people to follow there.

All my resources are at these two sites:

• Creative Comics - I updated the presentation and included new information about the improved Slides app.
• Narrated Slideshows

And many other presenters shared their resources on this page.

If you found this post helpful you might also want to see:

• Tips for Chromebook basics
• How to capture and Mark Up Images with a Chromebook
• Google Apps Tutorials - Summer PD from 2014

Basic Chromebooks Tips for Teachers

I've been using Chromebooks myself for a couple years, but our middle school is just received the first few classroom sets this summer. I created these two documents with helpful Chromebook tips for the teachers and I wanted to share them here.

Some of the information is specific to our district, but you can easily make a copy of these and edit them as necessary. I'd appreciate it if you include a link to this blog on any copies distribute.

The first tipsheet is about file management. Among other tips, it refers to the Save to Google Drive extension, which is installed on all of our Chromebooks.

File Management With a Chromebook

And the second tipsheet is about ways to capture the screen, including how I mark up my screen captures.

Screen Captures on a Chromebook

You might also want to see:

• Using a Chromebook to Make a Narrated Slideshow
• Google Apps Tutorials - Summer PD from 2014

How to use the Google Slides mobile app to make comics from real life photos

A lot of teachers have been using my process for creating comics with Google tools. I was thrilled to find it can now be easily done using the Slides mobile app! The best part of this is now you can bring in the real world pictures very easily.

If you haven't seen the general process and possible final products, you can read all about it on this page from my Education On Air presentation from a few weeks ago.

That process starts on a Chromebook or a computer and it uses either Google Drawings or Slides.

Now you can start in the Slides mobile app. I did this on an iPad, but the Android app will be similar.

First, start a new Slides presentation.

On a blank slide, click the + sign and select Image.

Choose to get the image From Photos or From Camera. Notice that if you use the camera, this is an amazingly simple way to immediately bring the real world into your creations!

Crop, resize and move the image as necessary.

To add comic elements, click the + again and select Shape this time.

Select Callouts and scroll down to the three comic elements. Choose the one you want.

From there, it's just a matter of placing the thought or word bubble, dragging the point to the character who is speaking or thinking and then entering the text. Here's my sample taken from a game I was playing with my son.

A few things to consider:

• While the tools are easy to use on the app, you might prefer to just use the app to bring the pictures into the Slides presentation. Then you (and any collaborators) can open that presentation on a Chromebook or computer for easy editing. 
• See my two-minute tutorial on creating the comics using a computer. The first steps are now replaced by the import process above, but the rest of the video shows the details of adding and editing the comic elements.
• You can change the background color of the slides by editing the presentation on a computer or Chromebook at any time.
• See the Projects page of my website for possible end products we make such as PDFs, virtual books or videos.

Live High School Video Announcements

I've been working with our Communications and the Media class at our high school to produce live video announcements. We're only doing two a week right now, but we're working up to daily announcements. I love doing the announcements for so many reasons. Most importantly:

• Anyone can find a place to use their talents.
• Learning is happening on so many levels--technology, communication and collaboration skills especially. (Our studio was funded with career education funds.)
• The announcements are a great way to highlight what's working in your school.

Ever since video equipment became cheap enough for home use in the late 1980's, I've been playing around with it. This studio was my first step into professional level equipment, though, so it took me a long time to get it set up. I'm not an expert, but if you have any questions about how we do our productions, I'll be glad to go into more detail. Here are some basics.

We write our script in Google Docs and share it with all involved. When lines are sometimes changing moments before going live, it's the only way to keep the whole crew on track.

We use High School Cube to share our production with the classrooms, and really to the whole world if anyone else cares to watch. It's amazingly easy to do a live stream there using just an iPad with a WiFi connection. We've used that method, but normally we work from our studio. It took a lot of time to get that process up and running. Now that we've got a routine, though, it's proven to be very reliable. And did I mention it's free?

To get our stream to High School Cube, we use Open Broadcast Software (also free!). I learned about the software on the High School Cube site, but there were not specific directions for setting it up. It took a lot of experimenting, watching tutorials and guessing, but it's been working well for us

Our studio itself is a relatively low budget setup. (I was impressed with it, but when I told one retailer what I had to work with, he said we were really on the low end!) We have:

• Two HP computers with a lot of RAM.
• Two Panasonic AG-HPX 170 video cameras
• A Datavideo SE-2000 switcher
• CG-350 character generator software from Datavideo
• A couple Blackmagic video cards
• Corel VideoStudio 7x Pro video editing software
• Various mics, lights, cables, etc.

I'm actually not thrilled with the Datavideo switcher and character generator software. It does the job, but I had a hard time adjusting to both components and many times I feel they hold our creativity back. They were suggested to us based on our budget, so we do the best we can with them.

To show some of the work that goes on behind the scenes, I put together the following video to play on our announcements this past week. The narration was recorded on an iMac with GarageBand. The pictures and video were taken on my iPad and edited with iMovie on my iPad.

How to Be Good with Tech - Part 1

Photo from Kevin Jarrett from Flickr -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/kjarrett/

I’ve been working with computers for over 30 years. I have also worked with teachers and students as an instructional tech coordinator for the past six years. Helping them use more technology (and working with some who resist) has driven home one point time and time again:

Being “good with tech” is largely a way of thinking.

There’s no magic involved. I'd even argue there aren't hours of training sessions involved. Instead there are mindsets and resulting practices that make it easier for some to pick up the new tools. In other words, these are things anyone can learn and improved tech skills will be the result.

So in this series I will point out a few myths the tech challenged believe that hold them back. I’ll also explain some approaches the rest of us use that give us an advantage in keeping up with the never-ending stream of new.

Since I work in education, I’m often thinking of the teachers and students I encounter there, struggling or resisting to use more technology for learning or sharing ideas. Beyond that, though, I’m writing to anyone who finds digital tools to be an obstacle, but knows the tools can help them accomplish more of what they want to.

If you read through this article and, at any point, can't accept what I'm saying, please leave me a comment or send me an email. I hope to use any feedback to improve this series.

And for now, I will start by tackling the biggest myth of all:

Myth #1: Technology is hard to learn.

I start with this myth because:

• For as often as I hear it and the thoughts resulting from it, I don’t believe it for a second.
• Believing it leads directly to some of the other inaccurate thinking I’ll address later in the series.

When a new tool comes along, maybe you fall victim to a very real fear because of this myth. It’s hard to learn and no one wants to look dumb, right?

And of course many have discovered this view of technology makes an easy excuse to avoid the necessary work of learning or using something new. A good share of the population heartily agrees that computers and all those gadgets take more effort to learn than they’re worth. Point out just one instance when time was lost, more problems arose or someone was frustrated by a new tool and nearly everyone in the room agrees: There’s no time for learning that complicated stuff. Back to the old way!

Regardless of why you’ve held to this notion, until you get past the false perception of how hard it is to use technology, you’ll always see yourself in the ungifted group. You’ll keep waiting for some convenient time when you have days to learn and nothing else to do. In other words, you’ll never start.

I hope by the end of this article you'll be open to this simple fact: Learning to use technology effectively is not as hard as you think.

A simple first step

So let’s start with an exercise. Next time you’re amazed when you see a person (maybe even a child) do something impressive with a new tech tool, don’t immediately attribute it to a gift you'll never possess. Instead, be open to the possibility that digital tools are simpler than they used to be.

I feel like I’m giving away a secret here. I like to appear really smart when I help teachers with new programs. I love it when I’m the hero that bailed out the teacher in front of the whole class. (Early elementary students will break into applause for these feats. It feels amazing.)

But I’m just trying to be honest. Instead of new tools confounding me now and then, I am regularly amazed at how much simpler they are.

Yes, I remember how long it took me to hook up a new printer or connect to a new internet service years ago. New software was hard to configure, and that was if I managed to install it correctly.

I understand that many adults of a certain age had years of those experiences (or maybe, years of witnessing others going nuts with those experiences). This formed the idea that technology is hard to use. 

Now, relatively speaking, that’s simply not true.

Photo from Brad Flickinger on Flickr -
https://www.flickr.com/photos/56155476@N08/

Think about this for a minute. I mean no disrespect to your kids or grand kids, but isn’t it possible that all those young people who quickly learn to work the new gadgets simply don’t hold this myth in their minds? They come at the new stuff thinking it’s meant to be intuitive and work effectively. They act accordingly and success is the result.

Technology is wildly popular and used throughout our society now not because the younger generation is so much smarter. It's largely because the tools are easier to use. Nowadays if a new tool is hard to use, you’ll never see it survive the market long enough to reach the masses.

But what about...

Before you hit me up with recent horror stories of incompatible software destroying your meeting or network failures that brought the office to a standstill, please keep a few things in mind.

First, I’m talking about technology that’s working as intended. Realistically speaking, that happens the vast majority of the time. Organizations dealing in a day with hundreds of times more money than you and I make in a decade trust their fortunes to this fact. It doesn't let them down in any significant way.

I’m also talking about average use. The amazing wizardry we see from people who live in front of their computers, have budgets for the what’s beyond the cutting edge and who work in specialized fields is difficult to replicate. That's why they are paid good money to do it.

But I’m taking about common tools that allow normal people to achieve more than they do without them. And that's an important goal I'm glad to help people move toward.

And if you’re still doubtful, I’m not saying the skills are so simple that no brains or effort is required. My later articles in this series will address what and how much is required to become competent.

Examples of positive change

To get specific, here are a few ways I regularly notice the tools have become easier over the years:

• Language in the apps is far less technical than it used to be. Menus, buttons and even error messages use common words instead of all the specialized terminology we used to see.
• Help features of programs are written better and many are making excellent use of video to explain exactly what you need to know. I’m very impressed with the quality of virtual training involved in much of the new software I encounter.
• Apps only do a few things, so options are limited. It used to be software companies boasted of all the things their programs could do. I guess the goal was to make tools like Word, Publisher or PowerPoint so flexible they could be used to turn out many different types of content. That made software complicated, with features buried in menus requiring many steps. Now apps are specialized. You find out what you need to do, look up the best app for it and it does just that with a few taps.
• There is more consistency across tools. Yes, we still have the PC versus Mac and iOS versus Android divides, but overall similar icons and terms appear across many common programs. Once you realize this, it won’t look so mystical when your teen figures out your new iPad app within seconds of opening it. 
• If common problems and questions weren’t addressed in the Help features of the software, they are only a web search away. Anyone who works regularly with technology will tell you the power of a simple Google search when it comes to using a tricky feature of a new program.
• You can hook up most new hardware by plugging in a cable. Sometimes you have to download a driver first, but do I even have to give examples of how difficult this used to be? I am continually grateful for these improvements.

_________

I’m not expecting now that you'll sit at a computer and churn out an amazingly easy, yet visually stunning video to upload to YouTube. I’m just hoping when the next person bails you out a tech bind you won’t immediately attribute success to his or her mad skills. Instead, think...

Maybe the tools are easier now. Maybe I could learn to do that too.

Try thinking that way for a few days. Once you’re open to that possibility, you’ll be ready to take the steps I’ll address in part 2.

Using Google Drawings for Comic Creation

I was reminded recently that Google Drawings has Callouts in the shapes of speech and thought bubbles. Used in conjunction with the app on a mobile device, this makes a great tool for collaborative comic creation.

I put together this quick sample using a few pictures I had on my iPad from a PD day in our district. Ideally the pictures would be of actors or maybe toys or other objects set up according to a script.

Here's the process:
1)  Take pictures of the actors or objects for the comic. You could draw these on paper and take pictures or make them in a graphics program too.

2)  Upload the pictures to Google Drive using the app (if using a mobile device) or with the computer (if you created them in a graphics program on a computer).

3)  Using a computer, create a new Drawing in Google Drive. Share it with anyone who will be working on the same project.

4)  Set the background color.

5)  Add each picture and edit/arrange them. I found this order worked best overall. You'd repeat this for each frame of your comic on the page:

• Import the picture.
• Crop it with the crop tool.
• Resize it as necessary.
• Set the line width and color if you want borders.
• Move it to the correct place.
• Add the Callouts from the Object dropdown. You'll see speech bubbles in a few shapes and a thought bubble. 

• "Draw" the speech or thought bubble on your picture. 
• Drag the "tail" of it to the person talking or thinking.
• Type the text in the speech or thought bubble(s).
• Resize and move the bubble and text as necessary.

6)  Add any other text boxes or text to the Drawing.

7)  Download as a jpg image and share with others if necessary.

8)  Copy or import the image file into a shared Google Document. There it can be a page of a book made up of a series of such pages/images. You could put it in a Google Presentation too if it's more likely to be displayed that way.

Great new classroom resource - Infuselearning

I'm neck deep in professional development prep this weekend, but I had to take a moment to point out Infuselearning.  I went to a superintendents conference yesterday and Leslie Fisher showed us this great tool for connecting with students.  It's been out at some level for a while, I guess, but it was very new to me.  It's like Socrative, but has some amazing advantages.

It's essentially a classroom response system for any device.  But what caught my attention was the number of question types the teacher can send to the class.  You can even have student submit pictures!

And pre-made quizzes can be read aloud to students...in multiple languages.

Here's their mission:  "We will promote educational change through empowering teachers and bringing students to the center of the learning conversation through simple, easy to use technology."

I like it.

I also love what it could do for the creativity class presentation games and systems I've been working on.  Finally I have some tools I've been waiting for.  I'll have an account and be testing this as soon as I finish the presentation for the district PD day.  

Three Free iPad Apps for Flipping the Classroom or Just Teaching

I mentioned the strengths of teaching with video in my previous post.  More than just as a tool for teachers, though, many are finding the benefits of having students create video tutorials.  Here are three free apps worth checking out if you want to explore this on an iPad.  I am including just a few thoughts on each.

ShowMe -
There's only one "slide", so to do multiple slides you have to set up the screen, record, pause, clear and set up the next screen.  If you want to undo something you say, you're out of luck for the most part.  There's no way to undo just the audio.  It has a good community for sharing the lessons though.

Educreations -
I like how you can set up you slides ahead of time for presentations in this one, but like ShowMe, there's no way to just undo the audio.  I lost a 12 slide setup twice because of this and eventually decided it's not meant to be PowerPoint.  These can be shared online, but last I checked you shared only with users who signed up in your "school" community.  I didn't see a way to share with the world at large.

Screen Chomp -
This is by TechSmith, makers of Camtasia.  That's my screen capture software of choice, so I was really looking forward to using this app.  It has a fun look that should appeal to younger students.  There's also a way to share them online and you can scroll the screen too using two fingers.  The scrolling makes up for the fact that it doesn't do multiple slides.  The drawbacks are that you can only import one picture and one again, serious audio mistakes are going to require a complete do-over of the whole presentation.  As the TechSmith site states, this is going to be good for bite-sized lessons, sort of like Jing for the iPad.